I am a true believer in mediate instead of litigate but I'm not if this is the route to go in domestic violence cases. And I'm talking proven violence not false allegations. I believe it can have a particularly negative impact on women with abusive partners. For these women, disagreeing with the wishes of their partner is not an option -- it is too dangerous and the ability to disagree has been trained out of them. This is well documented with respect to mediation. There have been too many stories about women who signed "agreements" through mediation because they were afraid not to, about women whose abusive partners appeared cooperative and reasonable during the mediation session but who, outside mediation, threatened the women with dire consequences if they did not agree to what they wanted, about women who "traded off" child support or a fair division of property in exchange for a promise from their ex that he would not pursue custody of the children and so on and so on.
I'm looking forward to Sean views on this, as well as anybody that wants to add a comment.
I'm looking forward to Sean views on this, as well as anybody that wants to add a comment.
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